CAIRO, (Reuters) – The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army attacked yesterday the formation of a new political coalition outside Syria that plans to establish a transitional government, calling its leaders opportunists who seek to divide the opposition and benefit from the rebels’ gains.
The Council for the Syrian Revolution was launched by a group of 70 exiled Syrian activists at a news conference in Cairo yesterday.
The emergence of new alliance marks the latest effort by Syria’s divided opposition to forge a political alternative to President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces are trying to put down a 16-month armed uprising.
The Syrian military has stepped up a military campaign to drive rebels out of Aleppo, the country’s biggest city, using helicopter gunships and other heavy weapons.
The politicians who formed the new coalition “were hit by a fever of … acquiring positions which led them to announce the founding of a transitional government … to ride over our revolution and trade with the blood of our martyrs,” the head of the Free Syrian Army, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, told Al Arabiya news channel.
“But in reality they are trying to revive the falling regime of Assad by taking a decision without returning to the people who have shed blood and tears to achieve their independence from Assad’s criminal gang,” he added.
